{"id":5467,"date":"2026-06-25T00:55:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5467"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:55:19","slug":"the-atlas-lions-advance-4-takeaways-from-moroccos-comeback-win-vs-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=5467","title":{"rendered":"The Atlas Lions Advance: 4 Takeaways From Morocco&#039;s Comeback Win vs. Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Morocco spent a half being outplayed by a team that arrived with nothing to lose, then snapped back to reality. A rotated and rusty Atlas Lions side trailed Haiti twice in Atlanta before quality \u2014 and a lively bench \u2014 turned it into a 4-2 win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Here are my takeaways from Morocco&#8217;s comeback over Haiti:<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Pablo Garcia\/Soccrates\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>With Brazil seeing off Scotland 3-0 across the bracket, Group C finished as the seedings predicted \u2014 just not in the order Morocco wanted. Both Brazil and Morocco closed on seven points, but Brazil&#8217;s plus-six goal difference dwarfed Morocco&#8217;s plus-three, so the Atlas Lions take second and the slightly bumpier road. As runners-up, they&#8217;re set to meet the Group F winner in the Round of 32 \u2014 likely the Netherlands or Japan. Regardless of the outcome, the 2022 semifinalists have advanced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>For Haiti, the math was settled before kickoff. The defeat locks them into last place with zero points, eliminating them and sending them home. The favorites advance. The underdogs bow out.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Some players save their best for the big stage. Ismael Saibari decided every stage was the big one. The PSV Eindhoven striker scored in all three group games \u2014 a delicate lob against Brazil, the fastest goal in Morocco's World Cup history against Scotland, and a cool Achraf Hakimi-assisted finish here \u2014 to finish as Morocco's group-stage top scorer with three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>He's the breakout name, but hardly the only one who shone. Captain Achraf Hakimi was everywhere again, scoring one goal and assisting another from right back. Real Madrid's Brahim D\u00edaz and Stuttgart's Bilal El Khannouss provided the craft in the final third. And the bench bailed them out: substitutes Soufiane Rahimi and Gessime Yassine combined for the two goals that finally put Haiti away. Morocco isn't a one-man team. They're a deep one, which is far more frightening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>(Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>On paper, it was a 4-2-3-1. In practice, it was the Achraf Hakimi show with a double pivot behind it. Morocco controlled 70% of the ball, funneled their best attacks through Hakimi&#8217;s overlapping runs on the right, and trusted Sofyan Amrabat and Neil El Aynaoui to shield the back four. When it clicks \u2014 as it did against Brazil and Scotland \u2014 Mohamed Ouahbi&#8217;s side looks like a team that can hurt anyone. They possess significant technical ability across every line in the formation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The caveat: they conceded twice to an already-eliminated Haiti, the kind of switch-off better opponents punish. So what&#8217;s the ceiling? These are the 2022 semifinalists, now with arguably more attacking talent and a bench that wins games. Another deep run is firmly on the table \u2014 the quarterfinals feel a fair ask \u2014 provided the concentration that drifted in Atlanta shows up for the knockouts.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Haiti reached their first World Cup in 52 years and left without a point: three games, three defeats, bottom of Group C. But don't confuse the standings for the story. S\u00e9bastien Mign\u00e9's side led mighty Morocco twice, and the moment that outlives this tournament belonged to Wilson Isidor. With Haiti ahead and swinging, the Sunderland forward collected the ball on the right, shifted onto his stronger foot, and detonated a rocket into the top-left corner \u2014 an early goal-of-the-tournament nominee from a team that wasn't supposed to score at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The bodies and the quality ran out after the break, as everyone suspected they might. But Haiti found the net for the first time at a World Cup since 1974 and genuinely frightened a semifinalist. Some nights, that's the victory. For Isidor, that's a memory that'll last a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Morocco spent a half being outplayed by a team that arrived with nothing to lose, then snapped back to reality. A rotated and rusty Atlas Lions side trailed Haiti twice in Atlanta before quality \u2014 and a lively bench \u2014 turned it into a 4-2 win. Here are my takeaways from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}